The Road Ahead
by Flounder En Flucter
Summary: Sequel to my one shot Career Minded. Harry knows what the future holds for himself and his friends, see as he reflects on his past objectively and races the clock to save his friends. Rated T for language.
1. What has come before

Canon events up until Dumbledore's death in HBP.

Sequel to Career Minded.

Harry was sitting in the Hospital Wing, still shell shocked over the events of the last twelve hours. He and Dumbledore had gone to a cave by the sea in search of one of Voldemort's horcruxes. What they had found was less of a seaside cave and more of a chamber or horrors. It had the same oppressive feel of Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, only much worse.

The whole debacle emphasized how mediocre Harry really was along with what little planning Dumbledore did for the mission. They should have had a pack filled with useful potions and tools they could use, but didn't. They ended up getting soaked by the waves caused by the high winds, Harry was just going to stand there shivering forgetting that he had a wand and could do a drying charm, or maybe he did not even know the drying charm. Either way the old saying of "Start how you want to finish" was now ringing in Harry's head, and he had no doubt what so ever that they had a poor start.

Having to open the cave by sacrificing half a pint of blood was bad, to make things worse, it could only come from a single source. Harry had volunteered to pay what Dumbledore had called the toll but Dumbledore claimed that Harry's blood was much more precious than his was. After paying the toll they were able to enter the cave.

Next there was an abnormally still lake in the separating the entrance from a tiny island with only a stone basin sitting on a pedestal in the middle of it. After casting a few, what Harry had decided must have been detection spells, Dumbledore found a chain, which pulled a boat from under the water. At this point Dumbledore told him whatever happened to not touch the water. The water was clear enough that they could both see the lifeless bodies at the bottom of the lake.

Once they were on the tiny island Dumbledore had started casting detection spells again, finding that their quarry was at the bottom of the basin, submerged in some sort of liquid. Dumbledore studied the basin and it's contents for some time, eventually coming to the conclusion that they were unable to reach through the liquid to grab what appeared to be a locket, the liquid could not be magically moved or vanished. After casting a few more spells he came up with the dumbest idea ever, that it was a potion and was meant to be drank.

Dumbledore conjured a goblet which he handed to Harry telling him that whatever happened that he must keep forcing him to drink the potion. Whether or not he knew what the potion was or had an idea about what it's effects would be will forever remain a mystery, unless one has the ability to speak with the dead. Harry force fed Dumbledore the potion until he was able to procure the locket from the bottom of the basin.

At this point Dumbledore had begun to start screaming about how thirsty he was and how he needed water. Harry had attempted to conjure water but was unable to, whether it was due to his mediocrity or wards placed against such action will never be known. This is the point where things went pear shaped, Harry defied orders and went to the edge of the tiny island and used the goblet to scoop up some water, doing so he triggered the ward which woke the dead bodies, essentially transforming them from the corpses of Voldemort's enemies, into full inferi.

Inferi, or animated dead bodies, are among the most feared things of the magical world. There are many ways of creating them, but the most effective way to do so is with a ward scheme, they are easier to control, easier to make, and some of the strongest guardians you can come across. These inferi were naked, hairless, and bone white. It also looked as if some modifications were done to them, because normal people, nor witches and wizards, had such sharp teeth nor did they have the claws that the inferi had. It was quite obvious to Harry, that if he got within their grasp, he'd be torn to ribbons in minutes, if not seconds, and that it'd be quite a painful way to go.

Inferi are mindless beasts, they aren't like their cousin the zombie where if you decapitate them that their body will fall over useless, no if you're going to face one directly you need to remove it's head and it's arms, only then is it truly defeated. Because they are controlled magically through wards they can keep going even without a brain. Though unlike their cousin the zombie, they are driven back by fire. Many of those who would use inferi as guardians would also make it to where fire couldn't be used, such as over saturating the levels of oxygen in the area, or causing methane deposits around the prime fighting areas, it's also been said that a South American wizard once came up with a way to make them unable to see fire, so they couldn't be driven back, but neither of those things mattered there.

Harry didn't know any of this, despite the fact that Defense Against The Dark Arts was his best class, they hadn't made it to the material on inferi yet, and Harry didn't feel the need to study ahead. So Harry attempted to fight them like he would any other opponent, he was doing decently banishing and blasting them, but they would get back up even after being thrown fifty feet, and Harry was tiring rapidly.

At this point another miracle in Harry's life happened, somehow Albus Dumbledore was able to compose himself and use a flame whip creating a circle of fire, destroying some of the inferi while pushing the others back into the lake. They were able to make a hasty exit after that, but the effort had taken what appeared to be the last of Dumbledore's reserves out of him.

After getting out of the cave, Harry was forced to apparate them both to Hogsmead, it was a miracle that neither had been splinched in the attempt, since this was Harry's first time taking a passenger with him while apparating, truth be told this was the first time he had intentionally apparated while not in class. Unfortunately this was not the end of a night from Hell.

The Dark Mark was flying above the Hogwarts Astronomy Tower, which meant that Draco Malfoy had been successful in his mission, whatever it was. The Dark Mark was only ever fired when someone had been killed by Death Eaters, a grisly calling card to proclaim their victory, it was safe to assume that someone had died already tonight.

After borrowing brooms from Madam Rosemerta at the Three Broomsticks, they used them to travel quickly to the castle and fly up to the Astronomy Tower. Dumbledore had told Harry to put on his cloak when they heard footsteps running up the stairs of the tower, he then proceeded to put Harry in a full body bind so he couldn't move or speak.

Harry was forced to watch as Draco Malfoy stormed into the room while disarming the Headmaster. Other Death Eaters showed up after Malfoy was unable to complete his mission and kill Dumbledore. For a moment things looked up when Professor Snape made his way into the room, but that hope was quickly shattered when he sent the killing curse at the Headmaster, blasting him off of the edge of the tower. If the curse didn't kill him, then the fall surely would have.

The Death Eaters were making a retreat after that, with their mission a success. A few moments after they had left the tower, Harry found himself able to move again, making him realize that Dumbledore was truly dead. The body bind curse would not have lifted that fast had the Headmaster still been among the living.

Harry ran after the Death Eaters, attempting to catch up, firing curses at the insurgents in few isolated battles that he passed. He had managed to take down two of the Death Eaters that were present during Dumbledore's execution, hopefully they would stay down permanently. Unfortunately he was unable to catch up to Snape, Greyback, and Malfoy on their exit from the castle.

If that wasn't bad enough, he had to tell the others a watered down version of the nights events before his return to the castle. Then the icing of the shit storm that was the night was finding that the locket that had been such trouble in obtaining was a fake. It was all for naught, Dumbledore would have been strong enough to fight against the Death Eaters had it not been for their excursion to the seaside cave, he wouldn't be dead, they would still have a real chance.

His thoughts drifted to that evening in the common room back in March, he told Ron and Hermione that it was already over, that they had been losing by inches, tonight Voldemort's forces had taken out their best chance at survival. It was all over but the crying. Maybe he should have stuck with Divination, it seems his prediction of the future was taking hold.

There were talks of closing the school, only staying open for 5th and 7th year students so they could take their OWL and NEWT exams. It was decided that the school would remain open to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th,and 6th year students until the following Saturday which was the day of Dumbledore's funeral.

AN: I recently reread my story career minded and it's reviews. It's about a five minute read give or take. One of the reviews wondered if I was going to continue it. So this is my attempt to start it. It will be a 7th year replacement because the entire camping trip from hell always seemed to me as the dumbest thing ever. Then throw in the inconsistencies like how in the hell are the Creevy brothers at Hogwarts? They're muggleborn, they'd be in the concentration camps.

I will also be editing/improving career minded because I have thought of a few areas where it could have been better.

Next I would also like to give credit to jbern because I totally stole how inferi worked from his story Bungle in the Jungle, if you haven't read it check it out.


	2. Setting the Stage

For nearly four agonizing days Harry had analyzed the mission to retrieve the locket horcrux, he came up with many things that should have gone better. It all came down to the lack of a proper plan, just Dumbledore's "You must do whatever I tell you to do." It was maddening, he kept scribbling on a parchment about lack of a plan. Which is when things decidedly changed.

"What's all this lack of a plan stuff you keep writing about, Potter?" Fay Dunbar asked while looking over Harry's shoulder to the parchment he had been writing on.

"It's nothing." Harry quickly lied.

"It's not nothing. This is obviously bothering you, but I'm not going to try and force you to talk about it. What I am going to say is that my da is a Captain in the Royal Marines. When he's home he's always going on about certain things, regurgitating things that he tells to all of his troops. Looking at your parchment there, I feel as if that I should share two of them, first is the P's. "Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance", the second is "Failing to plan, is planning to fail." So whatever it is that you're going to do, plan it out, it'll turn out better that way." Fay turned and started to walk away then stopped, "Oh and remember, no plan survives first encounter with the enemy, so use the KISS principle, keep it simple stupid."

Harry was floored, the most that he had spoken to Fay in the six years that they were Gryffindor year mates, and she told him exactly what he needed to hear. Sure he was a bit reckless and relied on, as McGonnagal once put it, "pure dumb luck", help from others, and divine intervention, but he couldn't do that anymore, it may not be the darkest hour yet, but it was close.

Dumbledore had failed to plan and thus failed. Harry knew deep down that Dumbledore had been attempting to prepare him for the future, but Dumbledore wasn't around anymore, he had to make his own way. Between Dumbledore's rules of engagement, giving unlimited second chances, keeping too many secrets, and failing to have a proper plan, he had potentially doomed his compatriots.

Harry thought back to a weekend before Aunt Marge's visit during the summer between his second and third year to Uncle Vernon watching a marathon of old war movies. While he was up in his room attempting to read a book, the telly's volume was extremely loud, so he couldn't help but actually hear the movies. He never heard any of the titles to any of the movies but he had heard every word of them, one of the movies had a scene where the characters were attempting to gather supplies, one of the characters said something like wars may be won or lost because of money, soldiers march on their stomachs. Considering that he had not eaten for two days before that, that line had stuck with him.

So he began to write a list of things he needed to do and things he needed to acquire. First thing was he needed to withdraw enough gold from his Gringotts account, nearly everything else depended on money. Food supplies, medicine and potions, and spare clothing.

He started writing down things he needed to find out about essentially making a third list. Everything on this list was phrased as questions.

"Isn't dragonhide supposed to be spell resistant?"

"If it is where can I get some?"

"How much do I actually have in my vault?"

"Who can brew the good supply of potions that we are going to need?"

"Can I get belts like Batman's utility belt made?"

"Should I tell the ootp about V's H's?"

After makings lists of questions, things he needed to do, and provisions he needed to acquire he pulled out a fresh roll of parchment. He started writing everything he knew about Volde., Riddle he corrected himself, no longer wanting to refer to that madman by his false name, and his followers. Things he knew for certain, names, descriptions, what he remembered of their fighting styles, so on, and so forth.

After writing about the Death Eaters for quite a while, he stopped not having anything more he could add. Then he pulled out another fresh roll of parchment and starting writing conclusions based upon to information he had written down about Riddle and his lunatics. They had a distinct lack of subtlety and a total disregard for civility. They targeted entire families, unless someone was missing from a house, no one escaped unscathed. Sure there were occasional survivors, but most of the time they were worse off than the dead. After finding out about Neville's parents, Harry had found out that Frank and Alice Longbottom were not the only ones who were tortured into catatonia, in fact it happened all to frequently.

That led Harry to his ultimate conclusion, one that he had come up with on his own while talking with Hermione and Ron in front of the fire, that everyone who could get out had to get out. He was under no illusion that he could leave, if he was caught leaving by his supporters they'd force him back, if he was caught leaving by the enemy he'd be captured and sent to his death. There was only two ways out for himself, with his death, or Riddle's death. But that wasn't going to stop him from getting everyone out that he could.

These people acted like Nazis, only changing blood purity out for the part of the master race, leaving everyone else who wasn't as pure as they were, to take the place of the Jews. There was going to be purges, people with "tainted blood" would be put to death, the females would be put through unimaginable horrors beforehand. Hell, probably some of the "prettier" boys too. There would be death camps, forced labor, so on, and so forth. Harry was sick just thinking about it. The likes of someone like McNair or Malfoy using girls like Hermione, or Fleur, or Sally-Anne to their hearts content.

They had lists of the muggleborn, names, addresses, probably who their friends in the magical world were, whether or not they had accounts at Gringotts. Hell for the ones that were school age, they probably only had to wait for the train to come into Hogsmeade station and just take them that way.

Gringotts would fall under the Death Eater's jurisdiction as well. It would probably lead to another goblin rebellion like the ones Professor Binns was so wont to lecture about. If the goblins lost control of Gringotts, not only would another rebellion be almost assured, people who opposed the Death Eaters would have their vaults confiscated. Things were going to get worse before they got better. Sure he had the beginnings of a plan but he needed help, he'd have to talk to some people after Dumbledore's funeral tomorrow.

-the Road Ahead-

As the funeral was wrapping up Ginny was still latched on Harry's arm. Harry had been in deep contemplation during the service, only half listening to the eulogies delivered by the people who knew Dumbledore best, not bothering to listen to the politicians blather on about this and that, and how the loss of Dumbledore was a loss that would be felt by the entire world and not just Britain.

While Scrimgeour was speaking Harry had a hard look plastered on his face. Ginny whispered to him, "You're not coming back are you?"

Harry, knowing that he was shite at lying and that his friends could always tell. "No I'm not. There's things I need to do and I can't do them from here."

"And what about us?" She asked hotly.

"There isn't going to be an us anymore. I'm going to be out there on the front lines and besides the people that will have my back, I can't afford to worry about anyone. A momentary distraction will kill me. You can have a full life ahead of you, graduate, get a great job, find some guy that's going to wow you and get married to him. Me? The only thing ahead of me right now is Riddle and certain death. My path was decided a long time ago. I can't run, they'll eventually catch up to me, I can't hide, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did nothing, so I fight. I'm going to go down fighting, taking as many of those bastards as I can with me."

"I always knew it would be like this, that you wouldn't be happy unless you were out there hunting Tom. I think that's why I like you so much."

"Really? You think this is going to make me happy? That having to go out there and kill or be killed will make me happy? Are you daft? I can't sit home idly and do nothing sure, but being out there fighting him will make me happy? You don't know me at all."

As they were talking Scrimgeour finished his speech. The funeral had ended, so Harry got up. It was time to start the plan. The express was leaving in little over an hour, but he wasn't planning on being on the train. It was only 1pm, since he wasn't going to bother with the train, he could get to the bank before it closed.

He walked away from the now sobbing Ginny, sure he felt bad for possibly breaking her heart, but a broken heart eventually heals, and he was out to save all of her, not just her heart. He found himself in front of Bill and Fleur. It was strange, here was two people who could help him at the bank.

"Hey there Harry, what brings you over here?" Bill asked.

"I need your help." Harry told them.

"How so?"

"You both work for Gringotts, I need to go clear out my vault."

"Why would you need to do that?"

"Bill, I'm sure you realize because we're standing in front of his tomb, but Dumbledore is dead now. He was our best hope to keep Riddle and the Death Eaters in the shadows, with him gone, things are about to get bad. I'm going to need money and I doubt within a few weeks that I'd be able to go get money. Ergo, I need to hit the bank today, you and Fleur have an in with working there, so I need your help."

"Harry, you can't go panicking, just because the Professor is gone doesn't mean everything is going to go to shite."

"Bill, they were a hairs breath away from taking the ministry last time, they were only beaten by a fluke. We can't hold on for some sort of divine intervention to save us again. We need to prepare for the worst, getting money out now will do that. If you won't help me I'll go on my own."

Harry had turned to leave but a delicate hand fell on his shoulder. "I will go with you 'Arry. I work in ze offices at ze bank, Beel does not."

Harry nodded, "Let's go then. We need to move as quickly as possible." He turned to walk towards the apparation point but paused and turned back around having a thought hit him. "Bill, can you cast a fidelious?"

Bill looked shocked but answered, "Yes. What do you want to hide?"

"We need a new one on headquarters. Sirius left it to me and with Dumbledore gone now we'll need a new one put up. We could use a decent bolt hole and it will work pretty well for that."

Bill was shocked that he hadn't thought of it himself but nodded. Harry was right, with having the secret keeper dead they had all become secret keepers making the charm quite weak. That and Snape knew the secret, so he could take the other Death Eaters into the old Black House, there were still documents left around that were quite incriminating if they fell into the wrong hands. The new fidelious needed to go up as soon as possible.

Bill was broken from his thoughts by Fleur kissing him on the cheek, "Beel, I will escort 'Arry to ze bank and get back as quickly as I can." Bill limped over to his parents after watching his fiancé and his youngest brother's best friend walk away.

-the Road Ahead-

The pair of the Chosen One and the supernaturally beautiful woman walking with him drew quite a few looks during their walk towards the boundary of the wards. They made quiet conversation catching up since seeing one another since Christmas. How that some good had come from Bill's injury, since Mrs. Weasley had finally seemed to accept Fleur's relationship with Bill.

Coming passed the gates Fleur said, "Come 'Arry, we'll take ze floo from ze Three Broomsticks."

Harry shook his head, "No, we'll just apparate. I don't have my license yet, but if we do it close enough to each other people will just think that you took me side along."

Fleur merely nodded and stood near him as they both apparated to Diagon Alley. Harry flipped up the hood on his cloak as they stepped from the apparation point and they walked towards the bank.

Even though last summer the queue for the bank stretched out to the steps of the white marble building, there were no wizards or witches waiting outside of the bank. Many must have either gotten their money out earlier this week, or weren't able to get there yet after the funeral. The queue moved quite quickly all things considered.

Once they stepped up to the counter a smartly dressed goblin almost snarled, "State your business!" without even looking up.

Fleur spoke to the goblin quickly in a different language that Harry was quite sure wasn't French, which changed the goblin's demeanor fast enough to cause whiplash. "Sir, if you step over to those chairs, someone will escort you to a managers office shortly." Harry was glad that the goblin had not used his name, as he didn't feel like being mobbed.

After waiting for only sixteen minutes a younger goblin led both Harry and Fleur to an office deep within the bank. They were immediately let into the office.

A vicious looking goblin sat behind a desk without much of anything on it. "Mr. Potter, I am Bogrot. Ms. Delacur has told one of our tellers that you wish to clear out your vault, is this true?"

Harry nodded, "Yes sir. I believe that in a very short time that I will not be able to come here due to the Death Eaters taking over the country. I will still need money, but having a vault full of gold will do me no good what so ever since I will be unable to get to it."

Bogrot nodded while going over what looked to be a ledger. "In summery we will be unable to liquidate your vaults." As Harry went to protest Bogrot held up a hand, "But what we will be able to do is transfer it out of the country. We have ways to move it to another location without raising any flags."

Harry considered that for a moment. "Alright, I can live with that, but I still need to get money today. How much do I have available?"

Bogrot, "Between your accounts, you have roughly eleven million galleons."

Harry was floored, that was a lot of gold. He was happy to be able to keep it out of the hands of the Death Eaters. "Do I own any property in any other countries? Somewhere near a Gringotts location?"

Bogrot withdrew a sheaf of parchment from the ledger and handed it to Harry. Harry looked at it and it was a list of properties that he owned. He went over it and found that he had quite a few properties around the world, he decided on the Canadian property.

"Alright, you have a location in Toronto, I'd like my holdings moved there. Now I have a question," Bogrot nodded for him to continue. "This property near London Ontario has fifty acres and what appears to be a mansion, do you know if it's fit for habitation?"

Bogrot, "It appears to have a caretaker in residence."

"Would it be possible to have a number of portkeys made to that location?"

"One time use, one way, portkeys cost forty galleons a piece."

"I need about five hundred portkeys made for that location. I also need contact information to my property. I also need fifty thousand galleons today, along with two hundred thousand in sterling."

"The money can be taken care of today along with the contact information that you requested, however the portkeys will take a few days to get that many. Do you wish to visit your non-monetary vault today? After you leave we will begin the transfer to Gringotts Toronto so unless you go there you will be unable to." Bogrot asked.

Harry was attempting to still his reactions, eleven million galleons is a huge amount of money, he wasn't the richest person on the face of the planet but he had a major leg up on most of the population. Then looking at his property holdings across the globe, he had somewhere to go besides the house on Grimmauld Place, which was nice since that house was a dump. Now finding out he had a vault filled with things that was filled with things that weren't just money? That's amazing.

"One last thing, I have a rough draft for a will written out, can you make it legal?" Harry asked.

"Of course we can. It will only take about an hour or so. You'll have to sign in a few places after we have the legal version written up. Although, you'll have to come in if you ever wish to change it of course." Bogrot replied.

"Perfect, that'll give me time to check out the vault."

- The Road Ahead-

Harry went through the vault, attempting to comb through every inch of it in the short amount of time that he had. He found a box of wands, even finding a pretty decent match, not quite as good of a match as his holly and phoenix feather wand he got from Ollivander, but a decent one none the less. He found a few wand holsters, he'd check those out later to see if they still worked properly. He found a magically expanded trunk filled with yards and yards of dragonhide, check another thing off of his list. He found a great many weapons, but nothing as grand as the Sword of Gryffindor, but a few that were more functional than ornate, he took those with him as well. Over all he ended up spending almost three hours in that vault, piling fifteen trunks full of things that he would be taking with him.

He had been going through everything when he found Hufflepuff's Cup on a shelf. He instantly recognized it from the memories that Dumbledore had shown him. He called the goblin that was standing outside of the vault waiting for him to finish inside.

"How'd that get there?" Harry asked.

"The LeStrange vault was heavily fined by the Black Estate because of their breach of contract, with Bellatrix LeStrange being responsible for the death of the previous head of the House of Black. I assume it came from there." The goblin answered with a sneer.

"I know goblins have magic of their own, can you tell me what type of enchantments are on this?"

The goblin took the cup from Harry waving his hand over it, muttering in a guttural language. Then he started getting angry. "How dare you keep one of these in your vault! Your accounts will be heavily fined for this infraction!"

Fleur had been sitting on one of the trunks that Harry had stacked up near the entrance to the vault, "If it came from the LeStrange vault like you claimed, they would be responsible for the fines since it only came into his possession recently."

The goblin visibly deflated. He probably would have been getting a commission from bringing that to the attention of management. "None the less, this object will be destroyed as per the Gringotts Charter."

Harry got excited, it was another one of the horcruxes found and being destroyed. He rode the cart up to the surface receiving another trunk with the galleons contained and a briefcase with the pound notes within. He then paid for delivery for the sixteen trunks to the Burrow after taking a stack of bills from briefcase and placing it in one of the trunks.

He turned to Fleur, "Can I steal you for another few hours?"

"What else do you have planned? It is nearly six pm already."

"I need some clothes and I need to stop by Little Whinging. I really don't want to, but warning my relatives is the right thing to do."

AN: I felt like this was the best place to leave off. As of right now I have no beta, so the occasional misspelling or grammatical error may happen, if I notice it I will go back and correct it. Updates will be sporadic, I work odd hours and don't sleep nearly enough. I was going to cover the actual funeral but as I'm keeping canon as a back drop I felt it was unnecessary, yes I added a few speakers, but come on, the funeral would have had more than a single person say something about the departed.

**Chapter one was Harry wallowing in his grief, if I would have had him actually speak he would have been raging about everyone near him dying. So it was a recap chapter but looked at objectively. Hopefully when some action becomes available I'll be able to do it justice. Review if you feel like it, thanks for reading. -Flounder**


	3. Getting the Ball Rolling

Harry decided that shopping with a French fashionista was exhausting. He lamented the fact that he told her to go crazy picking out clothing for him while he searched for practical clothing he knew he would need. He felt as if he was lucky to get out of there alive, especially after he found out that the sales girl worked on commission and she got involved in the dress up Harry game that Fleur seemed to be playing.

But eventually he did make it out of Harrod's alive and because he was spending such a large amount of money they had called a car service for him so he could make the trip to Little Whinging so he didn't have to waste time convincing a taxi to drive him all the way there and back to the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry knew that he needed to avoid bringing any attention to himself in the magical world and an underage magic charge would bring all sorts of attention to him. He'd be forced into Minister Scrimgeour's pocket faster than a plate of kippers disappeared around Ron. That or whoever caught wind of it might decide to bring him in since he had a record of "flaunting the law" and that he had an attitude of "rules did not apply to him". He already had three infractions of underage magic, one for Dobby levitating the pudding before his second year, one for using a patronus to drive away the dementors before his fifth year, and for the battle in the Department of Mysteries, sure he had been cleared of any wrong doing for the second two, but that didn't mean that the edict that former Minister Fudge had placed had been rescinded, there might still be an arrest on any infraction order out for him.

So having a car take them out to his aunt and uncle's house on Privet Drive in Little Whinging was the only option with being able to get there within the next hour. Worse yet was the fact that he had to promise Fleur another shopping trip since they only had an hour to shop, which meant that they didn't get to finish to her satisfaction. That and he had to bribe her that he would buy her a new dress and something for her honeymoon. Fleur was beautiful but he couldn't think of her in that way, she was marrying his best friends' older brother.

The trip passed quickly since it was a Saturday night and most people on the roads were heading into London rather than away from it so they could enjoy a nice dinner in the city or hit a pub with friends. In no time at all the car had pulled up in front of #4 Privet Drive and Harry along with Fleur reluctantly got out asking the driver to wait since it wouldn't take too long.

Harry didn't want to be there, he loathed his relatives, and he was pretty sure that the feeling was mutual. Unfortunately, he had to do what was right. They were going to be in danger, the protective enchantment that Dumbledore had combined with Lily's sacrifice would be broken on his birthday, and when that happened the house would most likely be attacked. The usual results would be that the Death Eaters would enter the house using painful curses to subdue the occupants, torture whatever information out of them that they were able to, females were often sexually assaulted in front of the males to cause the greatest amount of despair. Once the Death Eaters had what they wanted, they would then place the occupants that were still alive in a full body bind, seal the house, then setting it on fire.

Harry loathed his relatives, but didn't believe that anyone deserved such a fate. So he went up to the house with the manicured lawn idly wondering who did all the maintenance around the property while he was away at school. He briefly wondered if he should just let himself in or if he should knock, but was saved the trouble when the door flew open revealing his aunt.

"Aunt Petunia, we need to talk." Harry said, attempting to put some steel into his voice.

"What are you doing here? School isn't supposed to be over for another few weeks! And where did you get money for a car service? We certainly won't be paying for it!" Petunia half shrieked.

"If you let me and my friend inside I'll tell you why I'm here. It should only take twenty minutes or less." Harry said coolly.

Petunia ushered Harry and Fleur into the house, silently hoping that the neighbors hadn't seen that it was Harry getting out of the expensive car with the stunning blonde, if they did, the illusion of Harry being a delinquent will be shattered. There was no cover story in the world that would be able to stuff the cat back in the bag if the truth got out. She led them into the sitting room where Vernon was relaxing lazily in his recliner watching a football match.

"Vernon, the boy is here." She announced to get him to tear his eyes away from the television.

"What are you doing here boy? They finally wise up and kick you out of that freak school of yours?" Vernon taunted not noticing the beautiful woman with his nephew.

"I came to tell you things in my world are about to get bad, really bad." Harry said.

"What do you mean get bad? The entire thing is rotten to the core with all of it's unnaturalness." Petunia said venomously.

"Did you and my mother ever actually speak before she died?" getting no response Harry continued. "It's about to get as bad as it was then. Headmaster Dumbledore wasn't just a school teacher, he was a politician, nationally and internationally, he was a great warrior who ended the magical part of the Second Great War, he was the leader of the struggle against evil, and he was the most powerful and skilled wizard in Britain. Unfortunately he was assassinated a few days ago."

Harry left that hanging in the air for a moment before resuming. "During Voldemort's last rise to power he was kept in check by the Headmaster, but without him there is no one who will be able to keep him in check. In other words, Voldemort has essentially won he will finish taking the country before September. I'm extremely high on his hit list for whatever reason." He wasn't about to tell his relatives that he was subject to a prophesy or that he was a black eye on Voldemort's record.

"So why are you telling us all of this? Hoping that we'll take you to somewhere that the bad man cannot find you?" Vernon said finally pulling his eyes away from the football game.

"Even though we have never liked each other, even though I'm pretty sure you hate everything about me, I'm telling you this because I don't want to see you dead. Just like with the normal government, they have information on all of us, they know this address. They will come here looking for me."

"So we're going to be targeted by some freaks because we took you in by the kindness of our hearts?" Vernon roared.

"Pretty much, yeah. The good news is that you have until the week before my birthday to get out. My mother's sacrifice combined with whatever charms that the Headmaster laid down will last until then."

"YOU EXPECT US TO LEAVE OUR HOME? ALL BECAUSE SOME FREAKS MIGHT, I REPEAT MIGHT, COME?" Vernon shouted turning his face into a violent purple. Fleur discreetly placed a silencing charm on the living room so no one would hear his shouting. "THIS IS PROBABLY A PLOT SO YOU CAN DO SOME HOCUS POCUS AND STEAL THE HOUSE!" he stopped shouting and started muttering to himself. "Yes that's it, property rates around here are going through the roof, the little bastard is just trying to scare us off."

"You can do whatever you want, stay or leave it really makes no difference to me. But I guarantee they will come looking for me and you really don't want to be here when they do. If they capture you, you'll be praying for death, they will probably attempt to use you as bait for me, but I won't come. This is me doing the right thing by giving you information you can choose to follow or ignore. I hope you do follow through on my advice and get the hell out of here. You're always talking about the possibility of taking one of the director jobs across the pond, man up and do it." Harry forced himself to be calm the entire time he was speaking. These people really brought out the worst in him and he wanted to leave as soon as possible to wash the taint from his skin.

"I've said my piece, now my friend and I need to leave. I don't leave any possessions here so this is it. After today we'll probably never see each other again." He turned and walked to the door with Fleur trailing behind him.

"GOOD, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE YOU RUDDY FREAK! AND TAKE THAT HIGH PRICED TROLLOP WITH YOU!" Vernon shouted at his back.

They got back into the car that was still waiting for them and directed him to drop them off a block away from the Leaky Cauldron. They would floo to the Burrow from there.

-The Road Ahead-

Molly had been pacing back and forth in the kitchen for hours. She had busied herself making dinner then picking at her food once everyone had sat down, everyone except Harry that is. She really thought of him as a seventh son and now he had her worried sick disappearing after Dumbledore's funeral. Disappearing all alone except for Fleur of all people!

Sure she had changed her mind about the French beauty after that beast Greyback had savaged Bill; but she seriously doubted the girl's skill with a wand. The girl had come in last place in the Tri-Wizard Tournament for Merlin's sake! Harry had done better than she did and he was only a fourth year at the time! If anything Harry would end up having to protect her rather than the other way around.

Bill had tried to tell his mother that Fleur was perfectly capable but she wouldn't listen. She just kept pacing back and forth waiting for Harry and Fleur to get back. He thought that they should be back by now himself, they were only supposed to go to Gringotts, which would only take a few hours at most. What could be taking them so long?

There hadn't been any reports of attacks anywhere, Tonks and Moody had been here the entire time so they would have heard about an attack happening. Bill tried not to let his mind wander darkly, but with his face now mangled, he couldn't help but think that Harry was making a move on Fleur. He really like the kid, but he'd kill him if he tried that crap.

Bills dark thoughts and Molly's pacing was interrupted by the fireplace turning green and it spitting Harry out a high speed, Fleur coming stepping out quite gracefully immediately afterward.

After verifying that Harry was alive and unharmed Molly started yelling. "Where have you been? I've been worried sick about you! You didn't let anyone know where you were going and only took Fleur with you!"

Harry just dusted himself off and listened and waited for her to finish. Once she did he took a break, "Mrs. Weasley, I had some business to take care of at Gringotts. I needed someone with me that understood bank policies so I asked Fleur to come with me as she works there. We didn't finish at the bank until after five. Afterwards we went to a muggle department store so I could grab some clothes, as I didn't want to walk around in my school uniform in the muggle world. We then went to see my relatives and warn them, after finishing with that we went back to the Leaky Cauldron and flooed back here."

"As for why I didn't tell anyone where we were going, I told Bill that we were going to the bank. I was sure he'd relay that to you. The shopping trip was spur of the moment, but needed to happen. Warning my relatives also needed to happen, the sooner the better. The protection on their house will break on my birthday, whether it breaks at the exact time of my birth, or midnight, no one can guess. They need time to decide what they're going to do, so warning them at the first opportunity I had was the right thing to do.

"Anyone using magic around that area is going to have the ministry on them faster than Ron can eat a plate of eggs. If they aren't Death Eaters they'll be dragging me off to the ministry to force me to work with Scrimgeour, if they are Death Eaters they'll be dragging me off to the Dark Wanker, so we took a car from the store to Little Whinging and back to the Leaky Cauldron."

"Now it's getting late, I haven't eaten since this morning, and I barely picked at my food. So I'd like to eat, then get some sleep since I need to be up early. I have more things to do tomorrow, Gringotts is delivering some trunks that I pulled from my vault first thing, and we need to get a new fidelious on Grimmauld Place. So tomorrow is going to be just as busy as today, if it makes you feel better I'll take Remus and someone else with me as well tomorrow, but whoever goes with me needs to be able to blend into the muggle world."

Bill was dumbfounded. No one besides his dad had ever shut down one of his mother's infamous rants so thoroughly and logically. Everything Harry had said made sense. Scrimgeour had already tried to rope Harry into working with him during Christmas dinner. Hell he looked as if he was going to try and approach Harry after the funeral but Harry had ran like his arse was on fire. Having the trace pick him up would just mean that Scrimgeour would have Harry at his mercy, that or Voldemort.

Molly fixed Harry and Fleur a plate of leftovers each. Harry appeared to be ravenous, demolishing his plate as quickly as Ron would. After he finished he let out a muffled belch then turned his attention to Bill.

"Are you strong enough to be able to do the fidelious tomorrow?"

"I think I can. I know it's important so I don't care if I'm laid up for a few days after, as long as it gets done." Bill replied.

"Is there anyone else who can do it? You're still recovering and we really should only have you do it as a last resort."

"I don't think so. Mad Eye might be able to, the spell itself is pretty simple, it just requires a good amount of power. There really aren't any wand movements and the incantation isn't that hard. You just have to be located outside of the building that you want to hide."

"Alright, get a hold of Moody and see if he can do it, we need a proper bolt hole for when things get bad. That and we can't start stockpiling supplies if we don't have a place to keep them."

Molly chose that moment to speak up. "What kind of supplies are you talking about?"

Harry took a drink for his glass of juice. "Mrs Weasley, do you honestly believe that the Death Eaters will not fully take the ministry? That once they do take the ministry they will keep Mr Weasley around?"

"They are going to take the ministry, once they do Mr Weasley will be fired, if not outright killed. I know you have been paying off the loans that you had taken out to pay for a combined forty nine years of tuition between your kids, sure Mr Weasley got a raise when he got that promotion last year, but I'm sure you've been paying off bills rather than putting it into savings. If Mr Weasley is fired, or hurt, or worse, could you make due?"

Molly was silent. Of course Harry would figure out that how much Hogwarts tuition was, he had a Gringotts account and probably looked at his ledgers. It was simple math to figure out the amount they had to come up with. It was no stretch of the imagination to know how much Arthur made at his old post at the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office, even if he was the head.

Arthur had been just a lowly clerk at the ministry when Bill was born, by the time Bill was old enough for Hogwarts they had four other children already, getting a loan was the only way to put him through school. Two years later when Charlie was set to start they had to take another loan, then so on and so forth. Even with the discounted tuition for purebloods it was still five thousand galleons per year, per student. Thankfully both Bill and Charlie took decent paying jobs and started making payments on the loans as well. Until the dark cloud of the war had come, it had looked as if they only had another five years or so before they would be clear of their debts.

Molly thought about all of that, how much the food they didn't produce themselves cost each month, clothing that needed to be replaced after it had been repaired a few too many times, little expenses that just add up. Then she thought of the payments that needed to be made every month on the first, if Arthur was ever seriously hurt or Merlin forbid worse, it would be disaster, they'd lose everything. Molly stayed silent, not wanting to admit out loud that Harry was right.

"So we have to plan for the worst to happen. I'm going to stock up on food, mainly canned goods and things with a long shelf life, unless someone knows a good stasis charm for meats and what not. We'll get that from the muggle world to not draw attention to ourselves here.

"Then we also need to stock up on potions ingredients and other potions supplies, the next step is to find someone who can brew a stockpile of potions that we need to have on hand.

"We also need extra clothing, if things go worse case, we could end up taking people in. People who no longer have anything. Last summer Madam Bones was attacked in her own home by the Dark Wanker himself and probably some goons, they killed her and destroyed her home. Her niece Susan is in my year at Hogwarts, Susan lived with her aunt because her parents were killed shortly before mine were. Susan lost everything besides a few things that she had taken with her when she spent the night at her friend's house.

"Then the one thing I'd really like to get a hold of is some spare wands. Wands are only made of wood and as Ron proved at the beginning of our second year accidents happen. We could be in a rush to get out of somewhere and lose our wands, but if we have some back ups stashed for emergencies, we'll be much better off."

"Harry, you really shouldn't be worrying about these things, you should let the adults handle them." Molly told him, not quite scolding.

"Mrs Weasley, I don't know how to tell you this, but there is a good chance that I'm not going to live to see my 18th birthday. Voldemort has a hit list, the Headmaster and I went back and forth on who was on the top of it for the last couple of years, but now that he's gone I'm the number one target again. He will come at me with everything he can. I can't run, nor can I hide, the only thing I can do is prepare myself and those around me for the coming storm.

"Let's talk about this later though, like I said I'm tired and I've got another full day ahead of me tomorrow." he turned to Bill, "How long would you be down if you did the charm tomorrow?"

"Probably two or three days, why?"

"If it Moody is unable to, we'll need you to do the charm tomorrow. I would have you walk me through casting it, but I don't want to take any chances with the trace. So if you have to cast it yourself, I want you to be able to come to the meeting I'm going to be calling. We can discuss the rest of my plans then."

Harry yawned and said goodnight to everyone before heading up to Fred and George's old room for the night.


End file.
